Ultrasonic imaging has become a widely used tool in medical diagnostics. Ultrasound techniques introduce high-frequency acoustic waves into a subject's body. Ultrasound system includes a transmitter that generates an electrical energy. This electrical energy is converted into acoustic energy by a transducer integrated within the ultrasound system. The acoustic energy or ultrasound signals are transmitted to the subject's body, from an ultrasound probe, and, in response, echoes of the acoustic energy are reflected from various acoustic impedance discontinuities within the body.
The echoes are received by the transducer. The echoes (or the reflected ultrasound signals) are amplified and digitized to generate an ultrasound image of the subject. The received echoes of those waves provide information allowing a trained observer to view the subject's internal organs.
The receiver in the ultrasound system is designed in low voltage technology. The transmitter in the ultrasound system is designed in high voltage technology. It can be a pulsed or a linear transmitter. The transmitter utilizes a level shifter whose function is to level shift an input signal in a low voltage domain to high voltage domain. However, the level shifter used in existing ultrasound systems has various shortcomings, such as (a) not immune to high supply transients; (b) large area on account of high voltage transistors; and/or (c) does not support high operating frequencies.